1. Technical Field
This disclosure is related to a patterned transparent conductive film having homogeneous optical properties but heterogeneous electrical properties, and method of making the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optically clear and electrically conductive films made from metal nanowires are promising replacement for ITO films, which are used in various electronics devices such as LCDs, OLEDs and Solar cells.
Transparent conductive films in the display and touch screen devices, requiring the films to be patterned to have conductive regions and non-conductive regions, while maintaining the optical transparency. Previously, when a transparent conductive film consisting of a mesh of silver nanowires embedded into a film of substrate or bound on the substrate surface by an adhesive layer is patterned, the difference between the optical properties of the conductive regions (containing silver nanowire) and the non-conductive regions of the film become visible to the human eye.
A method to patterning a film having invisible edges between conductive and non-conductive areas is needed. One solution is to make a conductive film having identical optical properties in both conductive and non-conductive regions. In addition, the process of making such a patterned film should be easy to operate, scalable, and robust.